


Agnosco

by momentinsubtext



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-02
Updated: 2008-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 08:31:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2222418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momentinsubtext/pseuds/momentinsubtext
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On an alien planet, the Doctor has an epiphany regarding Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Agnosco

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted from my Teaspoon account.

_Agnosco - to know, or, to understand_  
  
  
  
The Doctor wasn't entirely sure what had happened. One second, he'd been talking to Jack about something entirely inconsequential. He'd opened the door of the Tardis, over Jack's protests that shouldn't he check the atmosphere _before_ he went outside. He'd kicked his respiratory bypass in, then there had been a loud sound, and he'd opened his eyes to find himself... here.  
  
Wherever here was.  
  
There wasn't much light, but there was enough to make out the outline of a small building. Above the door there was a sign, but there wasn't light enough to read it. He did not see Jack anywhere.  
  
This was particularly worrying, because, besides the ominous little building, he couldn't see anywhere else Jack could have gone. Even the Tardis was missing. Besides, Jack wouldn't have left him. Jack was... well, Jack wouldn't have left him.  
  
He sucked a breath in through his teeth and headed for the little building.  
  
  
  
Once inside, he was pretty sure it was a little shop. A doll shop by the look of things. All the shelves were lined with dolls. Female dolls in silk dresses, male dolls in satin suits, all with porcelain faces and shiny glass eyes. To be honest, they were rather creepy, and not doing a thing to help his nerves any.  
  
The counter appeared to be abandoned, until he was standing nearly in front of it. The shopkeeper was a tall woman, nearly as tall as the Doctor himself. She had black hair, and nearly black eyes. Her nose was hook-shaped, her fingernails were twice as long as looked comfortable, and she looked almost comically like a villain from a child’s story. She sighed and looked at the Doctor.  
  
"Have you, um, have you seen my friend?"  
  
"Welcome to Pricilla's Pretties," the woman said.  
  
"Yes. Well. Thank you. But have you seen my friend?"  
  
"You're looking for the latest model, then."  
  
"I haven't got a clue what you're on about. I'm just looking for my friend. About this tall, most people say he's gorgeous?"  
  
"Captain Jack Harkness," she giggled. It was _not_ the sort of evil half-cackling sound someone looking like her should have made. It was the type of giggle that more often than not was heard only from cartoon girls with bubblegum-coloured hair.  
  
"Yes, exactly," the Doctor said, ploughing on regardless. "So you have seen him, then?"  
  
"You're looking for the latest model, then," the woman repeated.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're looking for the latest model."  
  
"This isn't going to end well, is it?" The Doctor muttered. Why did this sort of thing keep happening to him? He sighed. "Oh, alright. What _is_ this 'latest model'?"  
  
  
  
It should surprise no one to find that Jack was the latest model; mind cast into a doll, body locked somewhere out of time and space. It should also surprise no one that the shopkeeper was being increasingly difficult and refusing to just hand him over to the Doctor. First, he'd have to purchase him. This made the Doctor quite angry, as it sounded rather close to slavery to him. Not that he could actually do anything about it.  
  
After much inner debate, which he spoke aloud so it might not actually count as inner debate, he waved his hand at the doll.  
  
"Yes, yes, fine. I'll 'buy' him, if that's what it takes to get out of here."  
  
The shopkeeper looked surprised to see him standing there. "Oh. This one, sir?" She looked wistfully at the doll. "He'll break your heart, this one.""  
  
"Yes, well, I've got two. Give him here," the Doctor said impatiently.  
  
"Flippancy, while often regarded as a form of bravery, is not always the proper course of action," the woman said primly. There was a loud noise, like thunder clapping overhead. The Doctor glanced upward...  
  
  
  
And found himself back outside the shop. Rather irritated, he walked back inside.  
  
Again, the dolls on the walls creeped him out, now because of the idea that they could all be like Jack, real people taken out of time and sold to who knows who for who knows what. Again, the counter appeared to be abandoned until he was standing nearly in front of it.  
  
The shopkeeper looked up at him and tapped her fingers on the counter.  
  
"Welcome to Pricilla's Pretties," she said.  
  
"I was just in here a second ago."  
  
"Were you? You're looking for the latest model, then."  
  
"I'm getting rather sick of hearing that. Just give me Jack already."  
  
She set the doll on the counter and looked at it mournfully. "Oh, he'll break your heart, this one."  
  
"He's welcome to try. Just hand him over."  
  
"Disregard for one's own well being," the woman chided, shaking her head. There was a loud noise, like thunder clapping overhead.  
  
  
  
"Welcome to Pricilla's Pretties."  
  
"Give me Jack."  
  
"You're looking for the latest model, then?  
  
"This is really starting to wear at my patience."  
  
"He'll break your heart, this one," she said, setting the doll on the counter.  
  
"You're not even listening to me anymore, are you?"  
  
"I'm listening to you, sir. The sooner we move through this iteration, the sooner you move onto the next." She offered him a thin smile.  
  
"What the hell does that mean?"  
  
"The sooner we move through this iteration," she repeated, "the sooner you move onto the next."  
  
"Yes, I actually heard you the first time. I was looking for an explanation."  
  
She smiled down at the doll. "He'll break your heart, this one."  
  
"I suppose it's only fair. I probably broke his a long time ago," the Doctor mused.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said.  
  
There was a loud nose, like thunder, clapping overhead.  
  
  
  
"Not one word from you," the Doctor said, holding his finger in front of the shopkeeper's face. "Not _one word_ of welcome."  
  
"As you wish, sir. You're looking for the latest model, then?"  
  
"Alright, it's a cycle. Reiterations. I get that. Why?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Why? What's the motivation? Why's the scene repeating?"  
  
"Looping, sir. Not repeating. I remember, each time you come into the shop."  
  
"Yet you greet me as a stranger every time."  
  
"Yes." She set the doll on the table. "This one-"  
  
"He'll break my heart, yeah. You've said."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
The Doctor sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say."  
  
"You're getting closer, Doctor. You'll learn."  
  
There was a loud noise, like thunder clapping overhead.  
  
  
  
"Welcome to Pricilla's Pretties."  
  
"I'm getting really sick of this."  
  
"You're looking for the latest model, then?"  
  
The Doctor threw his hands up. "We've been through this!"  
  
"Just to clarify, sir, you are looking for the latest model?"  
  
"This better not go on for much longer. Just give me Jack."  
  
She set the doll on the table and looked at it regretfully. "This one, he'll break your heart, sir."  
  
"So you've said. Just hand him over."  
  
"I'm not sure I should, sir. He'll break your heart, this one."  
  
"Oh for heaven’s sake!" He snatched for the doll, but she whisked it away.  
  
She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. It sounded like thunder clapping overhead.  
  
  
  
"Welcome to Pricilla's Pretties."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"What do _you_ want? You're looking for the latest model, are you not?"  
  
The Doctor rubbed his temples. "Yes, fine. I suppose I am."  
  
"Very good, sir. Although..." She set the doll on the counter. "This one, he'll break your heart."  
  
"My heart's already broken."  
  
She paused to consider this. "Then you have nothing left to lose."  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Are you certain?" Without waiting for an answer, she waved her had. "He's yours."  
  
Jack fell out of the air in the direction she'd waved, coughing pathetically. He bounced on the ground twice, earning the shopkeeper a glare from the Doctor before he rushed to Jack's side, lifting the other man part of the way into his lap.  
  
"Jack? You okay?"  
  
Jack shook his head feebly and his eyes slid shut.  
  
The Doctor waited. And waited. And waited. Jack didn't show any sign of coming back to life. In fact, the Doctor couldn't sense the Vortex moving around him at all. Jack was dead.  
  
Jack was... dead.  
  
Jack wasn't allowed to be dead. Jack was a Fact. Jack was a universal constant, the one person the Doctor could count on to never go away. Jack was dead.  
  
"Wake up, Jack," the Doctor urged, shaking the man gently, then harder. "Wake up. Wake _up_. You can't die. You _can't_ die." Jack showed absolutely no sign of waking up. "But, but you're _Jack_. You can't be dead. You can't be _dead_."  
  
"You said you had nothing left to lose," the shopkeeper said flatly.  
  
The Doctor ignored her, immersed in pleading with Jack to wake up, to not be dead, to not leave him alone again. Until Jack was... dead, he hadn't even realised how much he'd needed the man. How was he supposed to cope with a universe without him?  
  
"I told you he'd break your heart."  
  
"What did you do?" Was he... crying? He couldn't be crying. But that had sounded suspiciously like a sob, there at the end. He hadn't known Jack had meant that much to him. And Jack really did mean that much to him. Jack, for all he'd hurt and fled from the man... Jack meant the world to him. As earth-shattering epiphanies went, it was a bit too late.  
  
The woman looked at him and smiled brilliantly. "It's not too late at all, Doctor. Time to wake up."  
  
  
  
Jack was standing in what the Doctor would usually term his personal space, peering into his eyes and frowning.  
  
"Doctor? You okay? Your eyes went all funny for a second. I told you not to go outside until-"  
  
"Jack?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
His eyes widened. "You're not dead."  
  
"Of course I'm not dead. Why would-"  
  
Jack didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because he quickly found his arms full of quivering, babbling Time Lord. The Doctor had launched himself at Jack, nearly knocking the other man to the ground, and clung to him, whitened knuckles clutching his greatcoat, his face buried in Jack's collar.  
  
"Thisladyturnedyouintoadollandshekeptsayingyou'dbreakmyheartandthenyoudiedand  
itwasliketheuniversewasendingandyouwouldn'twakeupandIdidn'tthinkanythingcoulddothattomeanymoreand-"  
  
"I think I understood about half of that," Jack interrupted, wrapping his arms around the Doctor.  
  
"Half is enough," the Doctor mumbled, pressing his face closer into Jack's neck. Jack could feel his tears against his skin. There wasn't really any way two clothed people could get any closer together. "I couldn't... you wouldn't wake up. You're not allowed to not wake up. You're not allowed to..." he trailed off, willing Jack to understand.  
  
"I promise."  
  
Well. Of course Jack understood.  
  
After a while, the Doctor had calmed down enough to explain to Jack exactly what had happened to him. He hadn't quite reached the point where it felt safe to let go of Jack, but since Jack didn't seem to have a problem with it, he didn't see this as much of a problem. It would pass. Actually, he was pretty sure Jack was quite enjoying playing the dashing hero to his damsel in distress. Or would be once he realised that that was what he was doing, anyway.  
  
"It was terrifying," he admitted, letting Jack lead him into the chair. He made himself comfortable in Jack's lap. "My brain just stopped working. I couldn't think of anything beyond the fact that you weren't coming back."  
  
"I'll always come back."  
  
"That makes you the only person in the universe it's safe for me to fall in love with. You can never leave me."  
  
"Don't I get a say in that?" Jack teased, then felt instantly guilty at the look on panic on the Doctor's face. "Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry, that was tactless. Of course I won't," he murmured soothingly, holding the Doctor to him. "Of course I won't. If you're afraid of my running away, you can always tie me up." He paused. "Of course, you could always tie me up anyway..."  
  
"Humans," the Doctor sighed dramatically. "Isn't it enough that I can't cope with the universe without you, without dragging sex into it?"  
  
"Sorry. Of course it's enough. I was only trying to help."  
  
"Would you stop that?" The Doctor snapped irritably.  
  
"Stop what?"  
  
"The whole 'appeasment' thing. It's not you." He waved the hand that wasn't wrapped around Jack's neck to keep him balanced. "You're supposed to be all... flirty, and charming, and seductive."  
  
"Seductive?"  
  
"Because you've never noticed that you have that effect on people." He rolled his eyes, then poked Jack in the chest almost petulantly. "I'm the damsel in distress, you're the dashing hero, you're supposed to sweep me off my feet."  
  
"Never pictured you as the 'damsel in distress' type."  
  
"I'm usually the hero."  
  
"What does that make me, then?"  
  
"Well, you're the hero too. We're both the hero, rushing off the save the damsel together."  
  
"Sometimes I'm the dragon."  
  
"So am I. But right now I'm the damsel, and you're the hero, so why haven't you swept me off my feet yet?" he demanded. He'd have stomped his foot if they were still standing.  
  
"Mostly? I don't want to fall out of the chair."  
  
"Oh. Maybe tomorrow, then." He laid his head down on Jack's shoulder.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"If we fall out of the chair because we fall asleep," he said. "I blame you."  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"Because you," he yawned, snuggling closer to Jack. "are very, very comfortable."  
  
"Oh," Jack said. "So are you. Tomorrow, then."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Okay."


End file.
